Month: September 2015

I wanted to share a few photos of Peyton’s recent 6 month (and some days) photo shoot. Needless to say it was not easy! This Curious George of a girl is a mover! She does not sit, she army crawls, planks, knee crawls, stands, nearly jumps out of my arms and that’s just within the first 15 minutes of being awake. As you can see in the photo above, Peyton was not satisfied sitting in the chair, she twisted around and stood up on her own. She is strong, she is curious and she will eat all of your paper. Maybe we should dub her the goat. Goats eat paper right? I don’t know, I need sleep.

She sure is one smiley, happy baby. We can’t wait to watch her continue to grow, learn and explore. It’s hard to believe she’s already 6 months old. Well, now she is almost 7 months! We love you Princess Peyton!

PS: Something I will need to figure out, but you will notice the photos don’t look crisp on this post unless you click and enlarge the photo.

My son, Henry turned 3 years old in July. It’s really hard to believe that my first little baby is a full blown, rambunctious, never slows down, very sweet little boy. As a baby he had the happiest countenance of any baby that I have ever met. He would look into stranger’s faces until they would look at him and then he would smile. His good nature has followed him into toddlerhood and he is constantly handing out hugs to everyone and gentle face touches to every baby he meets. And now, he’s a big brother and he’s quite proud of it. He tells everyone we meet about his baby sister Peyton. He comforts her, plays with her and loves to give her kisses.

I asked Henry some questions recently and here are his answers.

What is your favorite food? Fries and chickens

Who do you love? Daddy, Hurley, Chickens, Aaron, Madi, Jesus

What do you want to be when you grow up? Me! Winnie the Pooh!

What’s your favorite color? Orange

What’s your name? Hemy Michael

Henry spends most of his days playing outside. He loves his sandbox and fighting dragons with sticks. He is such a great explorer and is constantly finding toads, frogs, praying mantis’, dog poop and bird’s nest. He will run back into the house, and say, “Mommy, daddy, come, come,” clap his hands twice and run back out excited to show us his new loot. He’s loves books with the same ferocity that his mama does. We frequent the library at least twice a week. He’s daddy’s boy, always following Josh around, helping him mow, garden or just gack (wrestling) around.

Henry loves to cuddle and still sleeps with us. He’s in for a big change soon because we will be transitioning him to his own bed in his own room this fall/winter. We have truly enjoyed spending such a sweet time with him for 3 years. At first he slept with us because he woke so frequently and it was easier on me to not have to be up and down all night. But it evolved into a special time for us, to feel close, warm and safe. I hope there are nights he still climbs into bed with us from time to time.

He loves his Grandpa Schmackers and is constantly (pretty much every day) asking to “Go to Grandpa’s house?” He also asks to go see his cousins, “Giddy up (Gideon), Max and Misariah (Mariah).” Every night he prays for Mommy, Daddy, Peyton, Henry, Hurley, Bella, his grandmas and grandpas, his cousins and aunts and uncles. We must close our eyes when we pray over our dinner and he genuflects before he enters the pew at church. Recently one Sunday at church, during a song at communion, out of no where, he buried his face in Josh’s shoulder and started to cry. We aren’t really sure why because he wasn’t in a bad mood or upset, it was as if he was moved by the moment.

We are so excited to watch Henry continue to grow and learn. His joy and smiles are so contagious. A day doesn’t go by that he doesn’t remind me that life is really just one big adventure, waiting to be explored and run through. I could talk for days about Henry’s big personality and the impact he has made on my life. I never knew that one little boy could change and influence me so much.

A few weeks ago, my friend Sheryl and I started to read The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. The purpose of the book is to help recover your inner child artist, who has been lost by growing up, becoming an adult or from being told that what and who we are, is in someway not enough. And we all know what it’s like to get caught up in the every day busy bustle, to get bogged down in social media/television/the news, etc. To lose pursuit of a true passion. To let insecurity create a resistance in us.

I read through week 4 yesterday and I’m slowly remembering that spark I had as a kid. You know, waking up every day, excited to go exploring outside, excited to create something out of nothing but your own thoughts. The activities in this book have also boosted my excitement about writing (on this website and in my own journal), photography and for activities with Henry.

However, even with the excitement of having a new website and brain storming ideas for it, I’ve let a lot of self doubt and insecurities seep in. I told Josh, shortly after going live, that I probably don’t have a lot of interesting things to say and that there will be people that don’t like me very much possibly reading my posts and or judging my art. Josh, being the wise and level headed guy that he is, told me that you will always have those type of people and that there isn’t anyone out there who is loved by everyone.

The book also speaks to these insecurities calling them “blurts”. Some of the ones that have come up for me:

You aren’t super efficient when it comes to grammar. Those grammar hounds will read what you write and nit pick every sentence.

No one will find what you have to say interesting. No one will read what you have to say. No one will engage you.

You’re not creative or imaginative.

You’re unoriginal.

And then I read this quote:

“Artists who seek perfection in everything, are those who cannot attain it in anything“

(Eugene Delacroix)

I (and you too) must ignore these negative little dementors that attack my inner artist child. Ignore that voice that tells me what I do and have to say aren’t good enough. I have to remember: never trying means you will never improve. No one writes a NY Times Best Seller right off the bat or is published by National Geographic immediately. Don’t let it stop you from taking a great leap of faith. Trust yourself. Remember what it was like to be a child. Pursue your passion, find your spark and be rambunctious with it.

I love a fresh new page in a journal. An early morning, with an orange sunrise painting the horizon and a steaming mug of coffee in your hand, welcoming a fresh new day.

It’s here at last! My renovated blog, fresh and ready for all kinds of new adventures! I want to say a HUGE thanks to gRegor for doing all of his magic in getting it up and running (he’s been doing this for me for years)! I’m still searching for the perfect header photo that I have or will take. There are some photos I’ve taken and haven’t uploaded that may work great for it. For now, a nice sky photo I took, which admittedly looks better on mobile than on a desktop version.

So what can you expect from this blog/website?

I want to be more intentional in writing and photography. I want to learn, grow, connect, and share. I want an outlet for my thoughts and my photography work. You will currently only see pages for: Poetry, Photography, and About. In time I will add more as the site grows.